Let’s set the record straight. Why is it so important and urgent to Wike and his co- travelers that Ayu should be sent packing in about 3 months to elections? Ayu, for now, is the only stabilizing factor in PDP to date. He won his election fair and square and became the National chairman of the party. No contest , no hassles and definitely no acrimony followed the outcome. Why must anyone who claim loyalty to his party in his right mind, suggest that such a stabilizing factor should suddenly resign?
Simply put, their intention is to remotely put the train into reverse gear. They wanted to sabotage the party. Remember their excuse of North and South divide.
Ottom couldn’t make similar case because it will not resonate with his own people. So he played empathy card. “Wike came to rescue when Fulanis were ravaging our land”. The same “land” he shares with Ayu and David Mark and other eminent Nationalities in Benue State.
Undoubtedly, all these leaders remain resolutely committed to the party. Lest I forget, it should be mentioned that there are so many within Wike’s circle not featured because they are colorless. Also, they don’t fit into their initial narrative of the South being cheated in the structural arrangement of PDP.
Now back to their simple demand and main request that “Ayu must go” otherwise, they will not work for the party. A blatant LIE! They left the party immediately Atiku was pronounced the winner. The gang meant business, they were very hungry for power. Did you remember Wike’s outburst in one of his videos (“Power! Power!! Power!!! why must anyone ask Him, Wike to wait until after the election to let Ayu go? Wike who lectured his audience about the subject, Power. Remember also the group’s outburst earlier on that “anyone above 70 years should be excluded from the presidential race”. Does anyone need any further pointer?
This struggle is neither about the party’s internal mechanism nor any thing to do with the North and South dichotomy. Call a Spade a Spade. These men wanted to take over the power structure of Nigeria, period. What is driving their ambition or who is driving it is a subject of another time.
The conspiracy to outmaneuver and take over the power structure is a collective struggle. It has no coloration: it cuts across parties with the driving forces in the two principal ones PDP and APC.
When the idea was conceived, it was a reaction to the security challenges and the insecurity in the land plus the economic slowdown in the country. As populists, they all concluded that Nigeria would have been better off with a southern presidency known to address the economic problems and tackle the security challenges of the country.
The idea was attractive to the PDP Governors all seventeen of them according to Seyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State.
Unknown to the PDP Governors , they were thrown a bait to lure them into a trap. What was the trap? (1) APC had no credible candidate from the North to defeat Party ticket hopeful Atiku who was robbed of his victory in 2019. (2) APC needed time to sell their Presidential Candidatefor at least 9 months to be able to compete with the popular candidate of PDP Candidate from the North.. So, they got INEC to extend the period of preparation for election by almost a year. (3) APC knew from the beginning of their conversation that none of the Governors of APC could clinch the Presidential candidacy of the party. (4) All the southern governors sealed the deal to ensure that the presidential candidate of their party would come from the south. (5) APC shifted their presidential primary twice to size the PDP up. Was it not these same PDP Governors led by Wike that ignored their intent and insisted that PDP should go ahead and conduct its presidential primary election. (6) PDP Governors are not curious to find out why Rotimi Amaechi or any of the southern governors lost to Tinubu. Why? How come the commitment to a conspiracy agreement is more important than the Presidential Mandate and Presidential Candidate?.
Even party offices are not zoned just for zoning sake, individuals are always targeted.
Agree that they were not suspecting any foul play by the APC Governors; Now let’s flip the arrangement such that APC’s presidential ticket goes to the North and PDP’s ticket goes to the south. Would the APC Governors remain committed to the deal? I doubt it because they couldn’t have left El-Rufai, Ganduje, or Yaya Bello for any of the southern candidates.
The Governors lost in both parties. APC embraced their own candidate while PDP rejected its own . PDP Governors’ reason for rejection is that he doesn’t come from the south. And that they are standing on an initial agreement between the 17 Governors from south.
Therefore, few of the PDP Governors resulted to blackmailing their party as follows (1) the National Chairman must go because he comes from the same zone as the presidential candidate. (2) they refused to be slaves in their country.
The presidential candidate must therefore give assurance that he would distribute security offices equally amongst the 6 geographical zones. (3) all manners of demand suggesting ethnic cards at play.
Not surprise at the later day development considering an incite to the notion they nursed in the caucus of the 17 southern governors.
But PDP has only 7 out of 17 Governors of the southern Nigeria which should make it more curious that PDP governors sealed an agreement with group 17 and totally kept the party in the dark. APC decided to zone the presidency to the south and PDP decided to leave it opened.
Upon emergence of the PDP candidacy from the North, some of the PDP governors are reading riot act before they can support their party. Was there a party conference meeting to address the issues concluded at the S/G17 meeting ? NO. Were the S/G7 members party to the zoning decision of PDP? YES . Bull Shit! Whatever doesn’t get to the table cannot be placed on the table.
The PDP group decided to sabotage its own party calling Tambuwal’s Politics at congress an ethnic card. They forgot Tambuwal suffered betrayal first. Wike, his friend and Presidential ambition manager suddenly showed interest and began to mobilize resources nationwide, he went further to become an aggressive Apostle of ‘not NORTH again’ just for reason of his sudden selfish interest in taking the shot. What a betrayal!
If Wike’s reason was truly regional patriotism and not strategic bullet to Shoot his friend and colleague Governor Tambuwal down and out of the race. The regional agitation, if sincere, should have been factored into Wike’s calculations as his allies were in charge of the PDP Zoning Committee and everything would have been done to zone to South East as against North East, the other marginalized zone.
Look everywhere in our system of governance (Senate, House of Representatives and the presidency ) , Religion and Ethnic factors remain the first and second determinant of our choices to date. This may change in the nearest future.
On the other hand, it is curious to know why Wike couldn’t rally the Southsouth vote at the convention. Could it be overconfidence? Or they do not share his vision. Or the two. Rather than embrace the reasonable and rational thoughts and leave the struggle for another time to correct the wrongs and be better prepared for a carefully thought out vision, they decided to throw away the baby with the bath water.
Their decision was to take over PDP either through propaganda, deceit and persuasion or disrupt and blackmail the party PDP until it succumbed to hand over the party to them. Either way, they are out to sabotage the presidential election of PDP.
It is irreconcilable that people can bury the foremost pressing issues of rescuing the nation from despondency and pain which is the bane of our society for their selfish agenda.
Wike and his groups’ illicit motives were misguided and their mission was dangerous.
They don’t want Atiku as their president. Wike said it “ He doesn’t want a president that is handed over to by the same tribe”. Simply put , what Wike and others are accusing Tambuwa of is the same thing they are now doing. Infact, in their case, they have gone overboard. Daily they badmouth and de-market the Party in public space with air of arrogance, yet they keep asking for truce, what a contradiction and confusion.
Having listened to Ottom lately, it has always been about Fulanis for him. But the irony of Ottom’s case is that Buhari suddenly became a saint after so much shout of Buhari’s neglect of Ottom’s people and lack of empathy over the years.
They don’t want Atiku because he is a Fulani man. They understand too well that they lost out this time around. So what could be their game plan? What is in it for them to sabotage their party?
These are no push over politicians. Not easy to figure out their intentions but we can speculate based on some of Wike’s actions which must have been approved by all of them.
Also, there has been antecedents. People who had exhibited the same traits in the past. Ayo Fayose, Gbenga Daniel, Olusegun Mimiko and others to name a few. In other words, I have mentioned two categories of people who have demonstrated the same trait as reasons for Wike and his groups actions.
◦ The first reason is that they are only interested in taking back the party under their control.
◦ The second reason is that most of them are in one problem or the other. So they will rather sacrifice the party to be able to walk freely after their tenure or they need more money to prosecute their elections.
Either way they will be sacrificing the entire party for their selfish motives. Their action is criminal and very hollow. They will be committing offense against their party and humanity at large.
But for electronic media and sheer providence, these people would have gotten away under the shadow of the night. Their actions were disgraceful, inhuman and reckless.
In my opinion, they should still face disciplinary action to deter future occurrence should they wish to remain in the Party (PDP).
Having understood their real motives and mission, it should now be Crystal clear why they lunch operation Ayu must go. Ayu as being mentioned earlier remain the stabilizing factor since he was legitimately elected. Not even the courts Wike used to throw Secondus out can repeat the same feat. So they needed to coerce Ayu to resign or pressurize the party to let Ayu go. Should Ayu go , they would have unleashed mayhem on the party. They would have made it impossible to allow any other person who is not loyal to them to be the chairman .
Like in 2015, when Jonathan succumbed to the pressure to let Bamanga Tukour stepped down. It didn’t stop the recalcitrant behavior of the protesting group rather they became more emboldened and attempted to polarized the party. In this case they are handicapped. They want their chosen chairman who would be executing their contract. Should they have had their way removing Ayu from office as chairman, the party would have been subjected to unending crisis that will distract the campaign efforts.
These people’s unanticipated consequence of their action is that PDP may be dismembered. Or could they have known but couldn’t give a damn. Whatever be the case; Ayu , BOT and the National Executive deserve acolytes to have been unwavering in their resolutions.
I congratulate Atiku to have been blessed with such committed, bold and loyal people. It is a sign of good things to come. A leadership that is strong and can not be pushed around by cabbals.
It is not too late to consider the plight of Nigerians under APC and drop the garb of ” WE DON’T GET it; YOU CAN’T HAVÉ it” A n eye for an eye can only make the whole country blind.
REMAIN LOYAL To Your PARTY.
LET AYU STAY.
SUPPORT WAZIRI ATIKU ABUBAKAR
NIGERIA CANNOT AFFORD TIME EXTENSIONS For APC
